The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
When I say Holland....
Jeff Wrangler:
Gezelligheid?
Sounds sort of like the German gemutlichkeit.
(Sorry, Anke, I don't know how to get the umlaut for the "u" in this format!)
isabelle:
Wow, David, what a great love letter to Holland/ The Netherlands!
It is funny (for me) that being sent to Spain should be seen as a punishment, when it would be heaven to me! i guess it must be because of the history of wars between the 2 countries.
Holland is also the place where the puritans converged to leave Europe and set off to the New World. They were to go down in history as the Pilgrims, or Founding Fathers.
serious crayons:
Here is how Seth Stevenson translated gezellig (or gezelligheid) in his Slate piece:
The overriding vibe in Amsterdam is coziness. It's like a municipal mission here. Every cafe has a cute little cat in the corner licking its paws. Every canal house blooms with a window box of tulips. Every hooker has doilies on her bedside table. (I'm guessing about this last thing, but it feels right.)
There's a Dutch word for their tyranny of cuteness. The word is gezellig, and it's difficult to translate. You just know it when you see it. For instance: Friends enjoying a picnic on a canal bank, laughing fondly, sharing a bottle of red wine ... this is clearly gezellig. A slob wolfing down fast food as he sprints to a meeting ... not so gezellig.
Click Here!
(This is a side note, but I find it sad that eating while walking—or worse, eating while driving—is the great American pastime. The Dutch almost never do this, except maybe with an ice cream cone. Having been here for a while, I've now decided I'm firmly on the side of the Dutchies in this matter. The notion that you wouldn't take time to slow down, sit at a table, savor your food—and, better yet, break bread with a couple of friends—seems weird to me now. And please don't start in about lost productivity and the demands of ruthless capitalism. I maintain that you can make money and also make time for a half-decent lunch.)
The larger point is this: They live much better here. They carve out cozy, delightful moments anywhere they can find them. They bring their families on candlelit, nighttime boat rides through the canals. They chat with their friends at outdoor cafes as the sun sets. They leave work by 6 every evening. And these are not special, once-in-a-blue-moon treats. This is how they live, all the time. Even in my short stay here, I've found myself drifting into various gezellig moments (involving, for instance, good food, thoughtful friends, copious pints of Heineken, and a rainy afternoon inside a bar that played only Al Green records).
I realize I'm in grave danger of sounding like a Euro-snob. So, let me be clear: I don't think they're any smarter or cooler than us (though they're certainly taller and slimmer). And yes, of course, we're capable of living beautifully in the States. But the gezellig lifestyle is a national priority with the Dutchies. I'm not even sure what our shared priorities are in America. Getting rich? Appearing on television? It's fair to say that coziness is not high on the list.
So, each time I come to the end of an Amsterdam visit, I wait for my plane at Schiphol Airport and I swear to myself that this time I will bring a little gezellig back home with me. That I will slow down, and savor, and live with grace and elegance. And then I land at Dulles and immediately eat fast food in my car.
henrypie:
If I had only one word for gezellig, I'd use "civilized."
If I had my preferred semi-long-winded reply, I'd also add "social," in the sense of the opposite of "antisocial."
Any good?
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: isabelle on July 10, 2006, 07:14:53 pm --- It is funny (for me) that being sent to Spain should be seen as a punishment, when it would be heaven to me! i guess it must be because of the history of wars between the 2 countries.
--- End quote ---
That did sound a bit bad didn't it? Sorry.
Sinterklaas supposedly comes to Holland by boat from Spain. Dutch children are told they will be taken to Spain with Sinterklaas and Piet if they are bad. Once they get there, they will be servants and forced to help make the toys to be distributed to the GOOD children the following year!
At least this is what Grandpa always told me and my sister! ;)
Edit: It's the idea of being stolen away from your family and forced to work in a far away country that scares children so much. That is what scared me at least! Although if it was to happen, Spain would probably be an ideal place to go! :D
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version